Kimberley Mannion
LIFEGUARDS in Mallorca have announced they will go on strike.
The Lifeguards Union of Mallorca will coordinate a strike between 50 lifeguards in the capital Palma on Friday, June 24, aligning with the festival day of San Juan, a popular day for families to go the beach.
The strip back on beach safety services will unfold between 10am and 7:30pm on the last Friday of June.
The striking socorristas will not be on the beach those days but instead form picket lines at the centres from where they are based.
Causing the strike is a demand for better working conditions and a salary increase, in line with the fact that they consider themselves “frontline health workers”. They also demand an extra half hour’s pay per day for the fifteen minutes it takes to raise the flag in the morning and fifteen to lower it in the evening.
Christian Melongo, Secretary of Mallorca`s Lifeguards Union, said: “there is a lack of lifeguards throughout the Balearic Islands because nobody wants to pay for training and earn little, when they could go to work in a restaurant and get paid twice as much.”
The Union also complains that there are not enough lifeguards employed in Palma to effectively cover its busy beaches, and says the lifeguard season should start sooner, as early as Easter, and finish later, on 31 October.
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